. The Pacific tourist . ute immediately south ofSalt Lake, and passed for several hundred milesthrough a desert, beside which the HumboldtValley had no comparison in tediousness and dis-comfort. Captain Stansbury, an early explorer, indescribing this section, describes large tracts ofland covered with an incrustation of salt: The first part of the plains consisted simplyof dried mud, with small crystals of salt scat-tered thickly over the surface; crossing this, wecame upon another portion of it, three miles inwidth, where the ground was entirely coveredwith a thin layer of salt in a state of
. The Pacific tourist . ute immediately south ofSalt Lake, and passed for several hundred milesthrough a desert, beside which the HumboldtValley had no comparison in tediousness and dis-comfort. Captain Stansbury, an early explorer, indescribing this section, describes large tracts ofland covered with an incrustation of salt: The first part of the plains consisted simplyof dried mud, with small crystals of salt scat-tered thickly over the surface; crossing this, wecame upon another portion of it, three miles inwidth, where the ground was entirely coveredwith a thin layer of salt in a state of deliques-cence, and of so soft consistence, that the feet ofour mules sank at every step into the mud be-neath. But we soon came upon a portion ofthe plains where the salt lay in a solid state, inone unbroken sheet, extending apparently to itswestern border. So firm and strong was thisunique and snowy floor, that it sustained theweight of our entire train without in the leastgiving way, or cracking beneath the K B (•^!rp^^ ^^ ^^^ ^ CENTRAL PACIFIC P. Stanford. Crocker. . Mark Hopkins. Our mules walked upon it as upon a sheet ofsolid ice. The whole field was crossed by a net-work of little ridges, projecting about half aninch, as if the salt had expanded in the processof crystallization. 1 estimated this field to be, atleast, seven miles wide and ten miles in salt which was vex-y pure and white, aver-aged from one-half to three-quarters of an inchin tliickness, and was equal in all repects to ourfinest specimen for table use. Assuming thesedata, the (piantity that here lay upon the groundin one body, exclusive of that already dis-solved,—amounted to over 4,500,000 cubic yards,or about 100,000,000 bushels. And even thissmall area, is but a very little portion of thewhole region, farther northward and westward. The Central Pacific Railroad, The record of the building of the Central Paci
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